Jewish Culture Festival, Košice, June 29 – July 2 2016

Menu

8. 11. | 7:00 p.m. | Ola Bilińska: BERYOZKELE (PL)

BERYOZKELE is a musical project which aims at reinterpreting, in a modern way, traditional songs in Yiddish. The album Beryozkele – Yiddish Lullabies and Evening Songs was chosen “the best Polish folk album of 2014” by Polish journalists associated with traditional music. The album was released in December 2014 by the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

BERJOZKELE is a collection of songs, related in their mood and subject-matter to night, silence and sleep. Many of them were popular in Poland and the Eastern Borderlands at the beginning of the 20th century and in the interwar period; they were part of the repertoire of famous artists of that time. Some, on the other hand, are unknown or forgotten. A very important element of these compositions are the lyrics: sometimes anonymous or traditional, very often written by Yiddish poets. They are testimony to the talent of pre-war artists, as well as to the wealth of Yiddish culture. The singer, with the support of Anna Rozenfeld, an accomplished Yiddish scholar, has made an effort to recreate this wealth as fully as possible, with great care as to the sound of the language and interpretation.

Lullabies are by definition intriguing forms, functioning on the borderline between consciousness and sleep, musical guides into the subconscious, memories, and childhood. Berjozkele have made a very careful selection in order to create a programme which is varied while remaining stylistically and emotionally coherent. Using minimalist means of expression, with both acoustic and electronic instruments, they have brought these over-a-century-old compositions back into life, providing them with a modern, compelling form.